Friday bullets a day late, Feb. 8, 2020

I'll dive right in.

• P. probably had the most exciting day today, because she bought her first car! It's a little two-door Chevy Cobalt, and she got a spectacular deal on it from a dealer. She now has the nicest looking and newest car out of all of us. 
• It is a manual transmission, so J. drove it home for her. Her project for tomorrow is to learn to drive stick. This is how I bought my first car, by the way. I bought a stick, and J. drove it home for me because I didn't know how to drive it. We had just started dating at that point.
• P. having her own transportation will help with the never ending game of Family Car Tetris that we seem to be constantly playing. It is caused by too many people going too many places with too few cars. When scheduling anything, the person must keep in mind not only their schedule but the schedule of every other person in the family to make sure that the car is available. It is tiresome. Of course, D. is planning on getting his driver's license extremely soon, so we will be back up to another driver needing the car. Sometimes I wish someone would just give me a new small car, and all the other drivers could drive the giant van around. 
• I harnessed the horse I drive all by myself with not mistakes!
• J. counted chickens this morning, and we seem to be down two or three. We did find some feathers out over by the tree fort, so we had suspicions. All the named chickens are still around. Not having a name in the coop seems to be a bit like wearing a red shirt in Star Trek.
• It's not difficult to figure out the culprit to the missing chickens. Yesterday morning, the dogs started going berserk with barking. Now, if you've met the dogs, you know that this is nothing out of the ordinary, but there was no car driving up the drive. Then children spotted what they assumed to be the neighbor's dog out by the trampoline. On closer examination, it wasn't the neighbor's dog, but a coyote. We've never had one come so close to the house in the daylight. 
• The birds are all on lock down for a while. They are not happy. It's difficult to explain to a duck why they are not being let out to bathe in the creek.
• K. is almost as tall as I am, and in another half an inch, I'll be looking him in the eye.
• It is nearly mid-February and I still have a lot of hay in the barn. This makes me happy.
• J. just came up with the news that the dishwasher doesn't seem to be working. This does not make me happy. Why can't appliances just work indefinitely?
• All of my seeds that I ordered have arrived. Now to figure out how they will fit in the garden, when to start them, how to make raised beds so we don't have the same issues as last year, etc., etc.
• I've been purging clothes recently. I tend to keep clothes for a long time, but every so often, I'll realize that things I previously liked, I don't really wear anymore. So, I try wearing them, and realize that at some point the styles changed and left those particular clothes behind. As a result, I will usually give away a huge portion of clothes. It was long sleeved shirts and sweaters last week. I probably cut the amount down by half.
• The first birthday season of the year is nearly upon us. I'm not sure I'm ready.
• Finally, don't forget I can sell you 50/50 raffle tickets to support Horse Power Therapeutic Riding. There's always the chance you could win a big chunk of change if you buy one (or 10 or 20).

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.